1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a striker for use with a vehicle having a lock element provided therein. For example, the striker may be fixed on a body side of the vehicle, and the lock element (i.e. latch) be provided in a seat of the vehicle, so that the lock element is engageable with the striker for locking the seat at a predetermined position. In particular, the invention is directed to a reinforcing arrangement to minimize damage of the striker and body side of the vehicle when a relatively small or great load is applied thereto via the lock element from the seat.
2. Description of Prior Art
Conventionally, in a vehicle including an automobile or the like, a striker is provided to a body or body side of the vehicle at a predetermined locking position, whereas on the other hand, a lock element capable of engagement with the striker is provided to a seat in the vehicle, so that the seat can be locked at the predetermined position by engagement of the lock element with the striker.
With regard to such engagement of the lock element with the striker, there is known a displacement restriction element for restricting displacement of the lock element relative to the striker. For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 10-44847 (JP 10-44847 A) discloses a displacement restriction element of this kind, which is a bracket fixedly provided to the seat in the vicinity of the lock element. According thereto, during engagement of the lock element with the striker, even when a great load is applied to the seat in any direction, which causes displacement of the lock element relative to the striker, the lock element comes to contact with one of the end portions of the bracket, thereby restricting displacement of the lock element relative to the striker in any of forward and rearward directions as well as in any of rightwise and leftwise directions.
Also, known is a dislocation preventive element for preventing dislocation of the lock element from a tolerable given position with respect to the striker. This is for example disclosed from Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2011-201453 (JP 2011-201453 A) which shows a dislocation preventive element provided adjacent to and alongside of the striker fixed on a floor side of vehicle. When a great load is applied to the seat, the lock element engaged with the striker is brought to contact with the dislocation preventive element, thereby preventing the lock element from being dislocated from a tolerable given position with respect to the striker.
The above prior arts permit a reliable engagement of the lock element with the striker and also insure to maintain a stable locking relation between the lock element and the striker. However, they only provide a reinforcement to the lock element on the side of seat, but do not teach any means for sufficient reinforcement to the striker on the vehicle body side. In other words, in each of the prior arts, upon a great load applied to the seat in either of forward-and-rearward and leftwise-and-rightwise directions, the great load will be transmitted through the lock element directly to the striker, with the result that the striker will be deformed. In order to avoid such deformation of the striker, a bracket may be coupled with the striker integrally for reinforcement of the striker sufficient to withstand the great load. But, in that case, even a load lower than the great load, normally applied to the seat, will be imparted via both bracket and striker to a body side of vehicle. Namely, such relatively low load will be directly exerted upon a connecting area to which the bracket and striker are fixedly connected in the vehicle body. As a result thereof, it is possible that both vehicle body and striker as well as such connecting area will be deformed or broken even by that relatively low load. This possibility will be quite high in the case where the vehicle body is weak or low in rigidity.